Varnish ing-machine



(MOdeL) C, E. MYERS.

V VARNISHING MACHINE. No. 326,051. Patented Sept. 8, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

CARL E. MYERS, OF MOHAWK, NEW YORK.

VARNISHING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 326,051, dated September 8, 1885. Application filed Jannary flfi, 1885. (ModeL) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CARL E. MYERS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Mohawk, in the county of Hcrkimer and State of N ew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Varnishing Cloth, whereby the construction of the gas-envelopes for bal- Hloons may be greatly expedited through rapid- 1y preparing in quantities the varnished fabric ready for immediate j oining together in spherical or other forms, and the gas be better retained by supplying a more perfect, homogeneous, and impervious coating of varnish than heretofore in use, through applying the coatings more evenly, in greater number, and in thinner layers than is possible with handbrushes or spatulas, so that the many coatings necessary may be of less weight, more flexible, and less liable to injury or spontaneous combustion, partial decomposition, or heating than as usually constructed, of which the following is a specification.

It has been the practice heretofore to construct balloons of cotton cloth by first sewing together the suitably-shaped segments of either unbleached cloth as it comes from the loom, retaining the nap or fuzz upon its surface, or of finished cloth as sold in the bleached or whitened state, and then repeatedly varnishing the bag by hand with brushes, which necessitates a large outlay of time,as the process of hand-varnishing is slow, while the mass of wrinkled cloth saturated with oil-varnish is extremely liable to spontaneous combustion, to avoid which it has to be repeatedly turned over and aired while slowly drying, as, on account of the collapsed condition of the sphere,

only a small portion of its sticky surface can,

be exposed to drying influences at one time, while if an attempt is made to partially remedy this by inflating the bag with air the escape of this air through the pores of the varnish or interstices of the fabric keeps the channels open, and so renders the envelope not im-- pervious to air alone,and still less impervious to the thinner and more subtile gas,hydrogen. A second, third, or fourth coating by handbrushes necessitates a similar outlay of time, T and injury through more or less sponlabor, taneous combustion in the mass of folds, so that the completed envelope inevitably suffers deterioration in parts which heat, and is never of uniform strength or imperviousness to gas, and is also greatly increased in weight and stiffness by the repeated applications of varnish more or less thickly and irregularly spread by hand, and in use breaks or cracks Where folded,and wears out in a comparatively short time. Further, if 1 the cloth be unbleached, the nap or fuzz itself absorbs a heavy weight of useless varnish, while if the cloth is in the finished or bleached state much of its natural strength is lost by the processes through which it passes in whitening it.

' To avoid the manifold disadvantages which interfere seriously with the practice of the art, I apply the varnish coating thinly and evenly in many layers by rollers, scrapers, and other appliances, while the fabric forming the base of my operations is neither unbleached cloth, so called, nor bleached cloth, but cloth in the gray, as the weavers term it, which furthermore has its nap removed by the usual process of surface singeing, yetis notallowed to undergo the further finishing, bleaching,or weakening processes which always follow,nor to have its flexibility injured by sizing or starching. The unbleached cloth, denudedthus of its nap or fuzz only, is then wound upon rollers for the varnishing which follows.

The varnish is prepared by subjecting pure raw linseed-oil in a closed vessel to a continuous heat sufficient to char wood immersed in it until the more volatile matter of the oil is driven off, and the residue finally undergoes a species of spontaneouscombustion or internal decomposition, whereby it becomes at once greatly thickened and its nature changed from an oily or'fatty to a gummy matter. Treated as a gum and dissolved or diluted with spirits of turpentine, this substance forms a varnish coat less porous than ordinary raw or boiledilinseed-oil, and capable of drying readily by the aid of turpentine alone with out the aid of driers, which would render the varnish more brittle or liable to absorb oxygen and decompose.

To apply the varnish, a quantity diluted to about the consistence of ordinary boiled-linseed-oil, or even considerably thicker, at a temperature of about 70 Fahrenheit, is placed in the lower portion of an inclined vat, M, as showuin the accompanying drawing, in which the figure is a vertical section of the entire I ch machine. The cloth, as it unrolls from the roller A, is drawn, as shown by dotted lines, beneath the roller B, immersed in the varnish contained in the vat, and, being thus satusuction, forcing it through the interstices as it rolls the varnish against the cloth, and again drawing it through the fabric as the surfaces of the roller and cloth part again by continued revolution. '1 he scraper O is removable and adjustable, high or low, to increase pressure of its edge against the sheet of cloth by altering the angle the cloth is forced to make in passing under it. It spreads the varnish and scrapes it from the upper surface of the cloth.

D is stationary, and performs the same service for the underside of the cloth which passes over it.

E is a double-edged scraper, also adjustable and removable.

F is a flap-scraper, whose edge or side is pressed by gravity or weight against the sheet of cloth as it passes over the upper edge of scraper E.

G is a pivoted or spring scraper, whose edge is drawn by spring S against the periphery of the roll of cloth wound upon roller K.

H is a combined roller and scraper drawn by spring S against the periphery of the roll of cloth on the side diametrically opposite to the scraper G. The frame-work supporting roller-scraper H is pivoted at P, and attached to this frame-work and clasping or pressing along the entire length of roller H is a scraper, I, which is forced in contact with the periphery of roller H by wedges V, inserted at intervals between the scraper I and a brace, J, forming a portion of the supporting frame-work.

In addition to the spiral springs S S, which serve to draw the scraper G and roller H in closer contact with the roll of cloth wound on K, one or more auxiliary clamps or springs, shaped like an inverted U, stretch from the back of scraper G across to the back of the roller-scraper frame work J, and by their clasp serve to draw all the parts in closer contact with the roll of cloth on K. Then the varnished cloth is being wound up by the revolutions of roller K, the roller-scraper H revolves by contact with it, but at a lesser speed, by reason of the frictional resistance caused by the wedges V pressing the scraper I against the rollerH, through which retarded motion the roller H acts both as aroller and scraper,

pressing varnish out toward the ends from the interior of the roll on K, while the varnish collected by H is scraped off by scraper I, while the spring=wcdges V apply pressure to any part desired, as well as adjust the relative speed of H.

In order to keep the whole line of cloth operated on in a more tense state, feedingroller A is provided with a wheel at one end, over or around whose edge a spring-clasp, Q, passes, whose ends are attached to a pin at R, thus increasing the friction upon roller A. The same object may be accomplished by a frictionbelt and weight instead of a spiral spring, as shown.

The bot-tom of the vat M is inclined at a suitable angle to facilitate the removal of excessive varnish as it returns to the stock contained in the depressed portion of the vat. The submerged roller B, plain scraper O, double-edged scraper E, gravity or flap scraper F, pivoted or spring scraper G, and rollerscraper H can be elevated or swung back or out of place to pass the end of strip of cloth from roller A to roller K at the beginning of avarnishing operation, and one or more of them can be removed to modify the action of the varnishing, as is also the case with the wedges V and spring-clasps U.

By this method of treatment and with the aid of these appliances it becomes practicable to perfectly coat a fabric with varnish in very brief time,and with an extremely thin coating, and secure an evenness of coat not possible with hand-brushing, while the varnished surface may be at once wholly exposed to drying influences by hanging to clotheslines or other wise. After a first coating and thorough drying,the fabric is revarnished in the same way, the second operation perfectly coating both sides at once. Thus four operations apply one soaking or sizing coat and six surface coats in" less time, with less varnish, and less weight, and less thickness of substance, than would result from two hand coatings, while the imperviousness (which is dependent upon the number of coatings and not their thickness) increases in much greater ratio, as each supernatant coat of varnish is pressed into and fills all the microscopic pores in each underlying coat, so that such a degree of imperviousness is secured as has never been attained by the same number of coatings or the same thickness or weight of varnish applied by hand.

The resultant material resembles varnished silk, is semi-transparent, and comparatively light in color, so that various coloring-matter may be added to the varnish without as serious loss of tint as heretofore, and,when desirable, a party-colored balloon may readily and speedily be built by joining together alternate segments of differing colors, which results would be impossible to attain without very great loss of time by hand-varnishing, as only a few alternate segments-say three or fo'ur-- could be painted differing colors and dried without smearing adjacent segments.

It is evident that the method and apparatus described are susceptible of a wider range of uses than the simple application of balloonyar- IIO nishes, and therefore I do not limit my claims 7 to that single feature of invention; but

I claim 1. In an apparatus for varnishing cloth, the

combination of vat M, containing varnish or coating matter to be applied, the feed-roller A, submerged coating roller B, and receivingroller K, arranged to coat simultaneously both sides of a sheet of cloth and remove excess by means of as many of the several scrapers G D E F G as may be necessary to modify the thickness orcharacter of the coating applied, for the purpose of producing an impervious fabric.

2. In an apparatus for varnishing cloth, inclining the vat M, together with the attached rollers, scrapers, and cloth surface, at such an angle as to facilitate the flow of varnish to the submerged cloth passing underneath the varnish surface at B.

3. In combination with the feed-roller A, the coiled spring Q, acting to bind by its elasticity and restrain delivery of the cloth.

4. In an apparatus for varnishing cloth, the coating-roller B, acting to submerge the cloth passing under it and completely saturate and coat the same by contact, pressure, and suction, as specifie 5. In a machine for simultaneously varnishing both sides of a sheet of cloth, the combi- V nation of a fixed scraper, D, acting upon the under varnished surface of the cloth, to force varnish into pores and remove surplus, and a movable scraper, G, acting upon the upper varroller H, pressed by springs S" against the roll of cloth winding on receiving rolls K, constructed and arranged to operatesubstantially as described, and for purposes stated.

8. In a machine for varnishing cloth, the

sharp-edged scraper G, pressed by springs S against the roll of cloth winding on receivingroller K, and acting to remove surplus varnish.

9. In a machine for varnishing cloth, the scraper G and roller H, acting, in combination with clamps U, to press between them the roll of cloth winding upon K, substantially as described, and for purposes mentioned. I

10. In an apparatus for varnishingcloth, the combined roller-scraper H, pressed by springs S against the sheet of cloth winding upon receiving-roller K, and revolving at a lesser speed, as described.

CARL E. MYERS.

Witnesses:

MARY H. MYERS, JOHN W. FREEMAN. 

